JJ Reddick: DeAndre Jordan Is A Righty

Jake ODonnell 02:37 pm, February 23rd, 2016

Walking through doors, sleeping in beds, dancing, buying clothes, cross-stitch -- when you're big as DeAndre Jordan, it's gotta be difficult doing things that were designed for people with normal length arms and legs. As we've seen with centers in the past, that includes shooting free throws.

Now, I'm sure DeAndre Jordan would LOVE to blame this one on Pablo Prigioni's inflatable wacky waving tube man impression over by the scorer's table, but then he'd have to find an excuse for each of his other 244 missed free throws this season, and who has the patience to do that? Let's just chalk it up to DJ sucking at 15-foot set shots and be done with it.

Or we could ask NBA three-point field goal percentage leader JJ Reddick what he thinks...

[OC Register] “I’ve tried for the last two years to convince him to shoot free throws right-handed,” J.J. Redick said. “I really have. He jumps off his left foot, which is how most right-handed people jump. Their left foot is their dominant foot. He shoots every single jump hook, and tonight, running hook, with his right hand. He finishes around the basket with his right hand.

“He’s really good at it.”

Could it actually be possible that DeAndre Jordan has spent his entire playing career using the wrong hand to shoot a basketball? Tristan Thompson famously switched over to righty prior to his third season in the NBA, and his free throw percentage increased from .586 to .660. Sure, that's not a proof of concept that switching hands gave him better touch at the stripe, but it's certainly encouraging for Jordan, whose free throw attempts go up every season while his accuracy consistently hovers around 40%.

Seeing as he's been sent to the line the fifth most of any player this season, even a slight improvement would be worth the trouble of relearning to shoot with his right hand. Otherwise, his best option is to watch online tutorials and pray the league implements rule changes to discourage coaches from using their beloved hack-a-[insert shitty foul shooter] strategy.